Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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westward movement ... Wheatley, John

westward movement: the populating (by Europeans) of the land within the continental boundaries of the mainland United States, a process that began shortly after the first colonial settlements were established along the Atlantic coast. The first British settlers in the New World ...
wet collodion process: early photographic technique invented by Frederick Scott Archer of England in 1851. To a solution of collodion (cellulose nitrate) Archer added a soluble iodide and coated a glass plate with the mixture. In the darkroom the plate was immersed in ...
wet gas: natural mixture of hydrocarbons that may be gaseous or both liquid and gaseous in the reservoir and that contains an appreciable proportion of compounds heavier than ethane (e.g., propane or butane) that are condensable when brought to the surface. Such ...
Wet, Christiaan Rudolf de: Boer soldier and statesman, regarded by Afrikaner nationalists as one of their greatest heroes. He won renown as commander in chief of the Orange Free State forces in the South African War (1899-1902) and was a leader in the Afrikaner ...
Wetar Island: island in the Banda Sea, Maluku provinsi ("province"), Indonesia. It lies 35 miles (56 km) north of and across the Wetar Strait from the northeastern coast of Timor. Wetar Island is 80 miles (130 km) long east-west and 28 miles ...
Wetaskiwin: city, central Alberta, Canada. It lies 44 miles (71 km) south of Edmonton. The missionary Father Albert Lacombe named the first settlement from a Cree Indian term meaning "place of peace," because it was there in 1867 that the warring ...
Wethered, Joyce: golfer who was widely regarded as the greatest British woman player of her day.
Wethersfield: urban town (township), Hartford county, central Connecticut, U.S. It lies immediately south of Hartford on the Connecticut River. Settled in 1634 and called Watertown by a group led by John Oldham of Massachusetts, it is the oldest permanent English settlement ...
wetland: terrestrial ecosystem characterized by poor drainage and the consequent presence most or all of the time of sluggishly moving or standing water saturating the soil. Wetlands are usually classified, according to soil and plant life, as bog, marsh, or swamp ...
Wetmore, Alexander: American ornithologist noted for his research on birds of the Western Hemisphere.
Wettin Dynasty: major European dynasty, genealogically traceable to the start of the 10th century AD. Its earliest known ancestors were active in pushing Germany's frontier eastward into formerly Slav territory; and by the end of the 1080s two of their descendants, brothers, ...
wetting agent: chemical substance that increases the spreading and penetrating properties of a liquid by lowering its surface tension-that is, the tendency of its molecules to adhere to each other. See detergent; surface-active agent.
Wettstein, Johann Rudolf: burgomaster of Basel who, at the close of the Thirty Years' War, represented the Swiss Confederation at the Congress of Westphalia (in Munster, 1647-48), where he secured European recognition of the confederation's independence and Habsburg renunciation of all claims to ...
Wetzstein, Johann Gottfried: Orientalist who propounded (1873) a "literal" interpretation of the Song of Solomon, which, despite its presence in the Old Testament, he read as an anthology of love songs having no religious or allegorical significance. A similar idea had been advanced ...
Wewak: coastal town, northern Papua New Guinea, near the mouth of the Sepik River. Economic activities are limited due to primitive hinterland conditions, but there are some coffee and coconut plantations in the area. Wewak originated as an outlet for the ...
Wewoka: city, seat (1907) of Seminole county, east-central Oklahoma, U.S. Founded by the offspring of African Americans and Creek Indians in 1843, the town takes its name from a Creek village in Alabama whose meaning is "roaring water." The Union Pacific ...
Wexford: county in the province of Leinster, southeastern Ireland. It is bounded on the east and south by the Irish Sea and from west to north by Counties Kilkenny, Carlow, and Wicklow. The Blackstairs Mountains-which have two main peaks, Blackstairs Mountain ...
Wexford: seaport and county seat, County Wexford, Ireland, on the River Slaney. The name Wexford derives from the Norse settlement of Waesfjord. It was an early colony of the English, having been taken by Robert FitzStephen in 1169. The town received ...
Weyburn: city, southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada, on the Souris River. It was settled during the 1890s after the Soo Line Railroad from Estevan came through to Moose Jaw (92 miles [149 km] northwest). Tradition holds that the place-name originated from the Scottish ...
Weyden, Rogier van der: Flemish painter who, with the possible exception of Jan van Eyck, was the most influential northern European artist of his time. Though most of his work was religious, he produced secular paintings (now lost) and some sensitive portraits.
Weyerhaeuser, Frederick: American lumber capitalist who put together a syndicate owning millions of acres of timberland, as well as sawmills, paper mills, and other processing plants.
Weygand, Maxime: French army officer who in World War I served as chief of staff under Gen. (later Marshal) Ferdinand Foch and who in World War II, as commander in chief of the Allied armies in France, advised the French government to ...
Weyl, Hermann: German American mathematician who, through his widely varied contributions in mathematics, served as a link between pure mathematics and theoretical physics, in particular adding enormously to quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity.
Weyler y Nicolau, Valeriano, Marques De Tenerife: Spanish general who, as captain general of Cuba shortly before the outbreak of the Spanish-American War (1898), used stern antirebel measures that were exploited by U.S. newspapers to inflame public opinion against Spanish rule of Cuba.
Weymouth: town (township), Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies on Hingham Bay and the Weymouth Fore and Weymouth Back rivers, just southeast of Boston. The township embraces the villages of South, North, and East Weymouth. Settled in 1622 as the ...
Weymouth and Portland: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Dorset, England, on the English Channel. Bronze Age weapons and Roman interments have been found on the site. Weymouth's first specific charter (1252) made it a free borough and port for all merchants, ...
Weyprecht, Karl: Arctic explorer who discovered Franz Josef Land, an archipelago north of Russia, and who advanced a successful scheme for international cooperation in polar scientific investigations.
whale: any of the larger species of aquatic mammals belonging to the order Cetacea. The term whale can be used in reference to any cetacean, including porpoises and dolphins, but in general it is applied to those more than 3 metres ...
whale louse: (family Cyamidae), any of a small group of highly specialized peracaridan crustaceans (order Amphipoda) related to the familiar skeleton shrimp found in shallow marine habitats. Whale lice are external parasites that live on the body surface of such marine mammals ...
whale oil: any oil derived from any species of whale, including sperm oil from sperm whales, train oil from baleen whales, and melon oil from small toothed whales.
whale shark: (Rhincodon typus), gigantic but harmless shark (family Rhincodontidae) found worldwide but mainly in the tropics. The largest of living fishes, it often grows to about 9 m (30 feet) long and reportedly may reach twice that. It is gray or ...
whaleboat: light, swift, rowing and sailing boat fitted with a centreboard (retractable keel), initially developed for use by whaling crews and now used more generally. Its double-ended, broad-beamed design is reminiscent of the old Viking boats; in time carvel-constructed whaleboats superseded ...
whalebone: series of stiff keratinous plates in the mouths of baleen whales, used to strain plankton from seawater. Whalebone was once important in the production of corsets, brushes, and other goods.
Whalen, Philip: American poet who emerged from the Beat movement of the mid 20th century, known for his wry and innovative poetry.
whaler: the blue shark (q.v.) or certain gray sharks of the family Carcharhinidae. See carcharhinid.
Whales, Bay of: former indentation in the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. First seen by the British explorer Sir James Clark Ross in 1842 and visited by a fellow countryman, Ernest Henry (later Sir Ernest) Shackleton, in 1908, the Bay of Whales served as ...
whaling: the hunting of whales for food and oil. Whaling was once conducted around the world by seafaring nations in pursuit of the giant animals that seemed as limitless as the oceans in which they swam. However, since the mid-20th century, ...
Wharfe, River: river in the historic county of Yorkshire in north-central England. It rises in the Pennines in the administrative county of North Yorkshire and then flows 60 miles (97 km) southeast to become an important tributary of the River Ouse (which ...
Wharfedale: upper valley of the River Wharfe within the Pennine uplands, in the historic county of Yorkshire, England, noted for its scenic attractions. The valley descends from the western part of the administrative county of North Yorkshire across the northern part ...
Wharton, Edith: American author best known for her stories and novels about the upper-class society into which she was born.
Wharton, Philip Wharton, 4th Baron: prominent English reforming peer from the Civil Wars to the Revolution of 1688-89.
Wharton, Thomas, 1st Marquess of Wharton: English peer who was one of the principal Whig politicians after the Glorious Revolution (1688-89).
Wharton, William: pseudonymous American novelist best known for his innovative first novel, Birdy (1979; filmed 1984), a critical and popular success.
Whately, Richard: Anglican archbishop of Dublin, educator, logician, and social reformer.
whatnot: series of open shelves supported by two or four upright posts. The passion for collecting and displaying ornamental knickknacks, which appeared in the 18th century and was widespread in the 19th, stimulated the production in England and the United States ...
wheat: cereal grass of the Gramineae (Poaceae) family and of the genus Triticum and its edible grain, one of the oldest and most important of the cereal crops.
Wheat Belt: the part of the North American Great Plains where wheat is the dominant crop. The belt extends along a north-south axis for more than 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from central Alberta, Can., to central Texas, U.S. It is subdivided into ...
Wheat Belt: principal crop-growing region of Western Australia, occupying about 60,000 square miles (160,000 square km) in the southwestern section of the state. Served by the Perth-Albany Railway, the crescent-shaped belt is delineated on the west by a line drawn from Geraldton ...
wheatear: (genus Oenanthe), any of a group of 19 species of thrushes belonging to the family Turdidae. They resemble wagtails in having pied plumage and the tail-wagging habit (with body bobbing). Wheatears are about 15 cm (6 inches) long and have ...
wheatgrass: (genus Agropyron), any of a number of species of wheatlike grasses in the family Poaceae, found throughout the North Temperate Zone. The plants are perennials, 30 to 100 cm (about 12 to 40 inches) tall; many have creeping rhizomes (underground ...
Wheatley, John: British Labourite politician, champion of the working classes.